Deck 10: Shaping America in the Antebellum Age

Question 1

In his Exposition and Protest, John Calhoun argued that a state has the power to

A) impeach the president.
B) raise a volunteer army.
C) set its own tariff rates.
D) nullify an unconstitutional federal law.
E) leave the Union.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The campaign between Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams in 1828

A) failed to attract significant public interest.
B) degenerated into a nasty but entertaining contest.
C) exposed Jackson's lack of an effective political organization.
D) presented thoughtful discussion of controversial issues.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Andrew Jackson argued that the national bank

A) represented an example of special privilege that hurt the common man.
B) restrained state banks from making unwise loans.
C) should be managed by Europe.
D) played a responsible role in promoting economic expansion.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Elected president in 1828, Andrew Jackson

A) won a resounding majority of popular ballots.
B) condoned the increasing attacks on slavery.
C) favored a significant redistribution of wealth.
D) purged from government all political appointees.

Question 5

Southerners opposed high protective tariff rates because they feared resultant

A) development of southern industry.
B) opening of new western lands.
C) increased prices for manufactured goods.
D) Native American attack.

Question 6

One of Andrew Jackson's key principles included the

A) defense of the interests of the moneyed aristocracy.
B) expanded powers of the national government.
C) importance of majority rule.
D) equality of whites and blacks.

Question 7

Essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson urged Americans to

A) conform to the dictates of social judgment.
B) look inward for knowledge and self-reliance.
C) avoid useless crusades for social reform.
D) civilize and tame the wildness of nature.

Question 8

During the depression of the late 1830s, the

A) prices of flour, pork, and coal were cut in half.
B) slave population of the northern states revolted.
C) trade union movement steadily grew stronger.
D) wages of workers fell by 30 to 50 percent within two years.

Question 9

Revivalism shifted to

A) the Deep South.
B) New York and the Old Northwest.
C) rural areas.
D) New England and frontier areas.

Question 10

As a result of Jackson's Specie Circular of 1836,

A) Martin Van Buren was elected president of the United States.
B) investors panicked in a rush to convert assets into cash.
C) the bank immediately closed.
D) a wave of reckless investments created an inflationary spiral.
E) the government accepted bank notes in payment for public lands.

Question 11

Which of the following groups would have been MOST likely to favor recharter of the Second Bank of the United States?

A) Native Americans
B) state bankers needing credit
C) southern and western farmers
D) New York state bankers

Question 12

As president, Andrew Jackson

A) asserted his power most dramatically through use of the veto.
B) favored significant increases in the levels of protective tariffs.
C) engaged in wholesale replacement of officeholders with his own supporters.
D) supported national funding for all internal improvement projects.

Question 13

All of the following factors contributed to a reform impulse in the United States during the 1830s EXCEPT the

A) activist tendencies in Whig political ideology.
B) Puritan idea of American mission.
C) anxiety over profound economic and social changes.
D) belief in human depravity.

Question 14

Political parties of the early nineteenth century

A) attempted to rise above popular emotions and ethnic prejudices.
B) depended upon the deference of ordinary voters to their "betters."
C) stemmed from elite coalitions tied by family and friendship.
D) aimed at widespread voter organization and participation.

Question 15

Preachers of the Second Great Awakening such as Charles Finney emphasized

A) atonement.
B) logic and emotion.
C) doctrine.
D) original sin.

Question 16

In the election of 1840, the Whigs

A) set a standard for restrained issue-oriented campaigning.
B) failed to attract much voter interest.
C) featured new flamboyant electioneering styles and techniques.
D) focused attention on serious issues facing the nation.

Question 17

Andrew Jackson's early national reputation stemmed mainly from his

A) political support for John Quincy Adams.
B) military exploits against Native Americans and the British.
C) crusades on behalf of Native Americans.
D) diplomacy with the Spanish over problems in Florida.

Question 18

During the 1830s, the Cherokee Indians

A) suffered hardships and death in a forced removal to Oklahoma.
B) defied a Supreme Court ruling in their attempt to avoid deportation.
C) laid siege to the federal capital.
D) lost tribal lands as a result of their defeat at Horseshoe Bend.

Question 19

Which one of the following was NOT one of Finney's beliefs?

A) eradication of sin from the world
B) conversion as the end of religious experience
C) individual reformation
D) reformation of society

Question 20

According to the Democrats of the 1830s, the government should

A) actively promote policies of economic development.
B) allow Americans freedom to follow their individual interests.
C) change moral behavior and eradicate sin.
D) support a system of general public education.

Question 21

What did trade unions advocate?

A) shorter hours
B) higher wages
C) better living conditions
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 22

For members of his "perfectionist" community at Oneida, John Humphrey Noyes advocated

A) Christian commitment.
B) communal child rearing.
C) agricultural enterprise.
D) absolute chastity.

Question 23

What did workingmen's parties advocate during the antebellum era?

A) free schools
B) tax-supported education
C) free public lands in the West
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 24

Antebellum Americans joined the temperance crusade, as they did other reform societies, partly to

A) avoid public suspicion of their own beliefs and behavior.
B) circumvent intrusions of the government.
C) seek relief from loneliness and uncertainty.
D) escape the pressures of middle-class values.

Question 25

Discuss the change in American political culture from the 1820s to the 1840s. Contrast the election of 1828 with the election of 1840.

Question 26

What institutions did some Americans attempt to reform?

A) schools
B) asylums
C) prisons
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 27

Analyze the emergence and operation of the second American party system. If you had lived in the 1840s, would you have been a Democrat or a Whig? Explain why.

Question 28

Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of Andrew Jackson as president.

Question 29

All of the following are true statements regarding Sylvester Graham EXCEPT:

A) He invented the graham cracker.
B) He gave lectures on chastity.
C) He was a Catholic preacher.
D) He recommended cold baths and exercise for those troubled with sexual desire.

Question 30

Which of the following groups of social outcasts did colonial families and communities take care of?

A) orphans
B) the insane
C) paupers
D) All of these answers are correct

Question 31

All of the following describe the life and work of Abbey Kelly EXCEPT:

A) She was a Quaker teacher in Massachusetts.
B) She came to reform through religious conviction.
C) She became an antislavery advocate, or abolitionist.
D) She led slave rebellion in the South.

Question 32

Which of the following individuals was not an abolitionist?

A) Frederick Douglass
B) Wendell Phillips
C) John C. Calhoun
D) Henry Garnet

Question 33

Utopian leader William Miller lost credibility by his

A) indiscriminate admission of new members to his sect.
B) extramarital affairs.
C) frequent absences and financial mismanagement of his settlement.
D) failure to predict accurately the Second Coming of Christ.

Question 34

The Mormons faced public hostility because of

A) rumors of unorthodox sexual practices.
B) their support for local Indian tribes.
C) their active missionary work.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 35

Whether secular or religious, the utopian communities of the antebellum era failed for all of the following reasons EXCEPT the

A) stress on the individualistic impulses of human nature.
B) recurring problems of unstable leadership.
C) financial bickering.
D)

Question 36

Which of the following women was a free African American who lectured and wrote about slavery?

A) Sojourner Truth
B) Elizabeth Cady Stanton
C) Sarah Grimke
D) Angelina Grimke

Question 37

All of the following describe the essence of prison conditions and practices in the antebellum era EXCEPT

A) tiny cells.
B) small workrooms.
C) isolation cells.
D) work release to go home each night.

Question 38

Imagine yourself a middle-class resident of Rochester, New York. What might you have witnessed and felt?

Question 39

During the 1840s, temperance advocates

A) argued that alcoholism reflected moral failure.
B) lobbied for passage of local option laws.
C) copied successful revival techniques.
D) rioted in the streets.

Question 40

Some of the many health reform techniques of the era included

A) hydropathy.
B) hypnotism.
C) phrenology.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 41

Despite factionalism and general public hostility, the antislavery movement in America gained significant strength by the 1840s. Explain why.

Question 42

Discuss the beginnings of the women's rights movement in antebellum America.

Question 43

Discuss the various attempts at establishing utopian communities in antebellum America. Whether secular or religious, they all failed for similar reasons. Explain.

Question 44

Analyze the types of problems faced by a reformer in challenging the status quo.

Question 45

Discuss the roots of the reform era in antebellum America, the types of reform pursued, and the motivations of the reformers.

Question 46

Analyze the tensions that existed within the movement to abolish slavery.